What Better?

My friend Haj Ross has been working on a problem that, in typical fashion, he has avoided giving a name to. It centers around sentences like the ones in (1) .

(1)
a. What better place than this to make a fire?
b. What better time than now to eat dinner?

Variations exist, as in (2), but the basic form of (1) consists of the elements in (3).

(2)
a. What better place to make a fire than this?
b. What better time to eat dinner than now?

(3)
What + better + [NP1] + than + [NP2] + [InfVP]

A moment ago I argued that the form of (3) was more basic than that used in (2)'s examples. On first intuition, this seems the most likely because [[NP1] + than + [Np2]] defends against a long infinitive phrase. (4) gives two examples. While (4a) is fine, (4b) is marked by a '?' because, though it is grammatical, it is simply too odd for my ear.

(4)
a. What better place than this to hold our own ground against the enemy and savagely find mastery of our own doom?
b. ?What better place to hold our own ground against the enemy and savagely find mastery of our own doom than this ?

While (3) does seem to be the most natural form, subjugating the InfVP to the end; there are certainly counter-examples, as those found in (5).

(5)
a. What better man to lead us than Caesar himself?
a'. ?What better man than Caesar himself to lead us?
b. What better form to take than that of a friend?
b'. ?What better form than that of a friend to take?

The use of [[NP1]+[InfVP]+than+[NP2]] in (5a) and (5b) proves substantially better, at least to my intuitions, than the form of (3) used in (5a') and (5b') - perhaps because of the possible confusion of the subject of the infinitive phrase.

There are many other issues that arise from this troublesome little quirk of English - many more when we begin to consider other [Wh-] words such as the last set of both good and bad examples in (6), which is where I leave it (for now) for Haj to decipher.

One last note to comment on the hopelessness of neat rules for this data: notice that the sentences in (6) contain only one NP and that those with "How" contain two infinitive phrases (and semantically REQUIRE what would be the only InfP in (6a) and (6b) to come first.

(6)
a. Who better than Caesar to lead us?
b. Where better than Chipotle to eat?
c. How better to travel than to take a train?

d. *?How better to take a train than to travel?
e. *How better than train to travel?
f. *Which better to drive than the Corvette?
g. *Why better to play than to win a prize?